The chef's vegetarian tasting menu starts with a lovely salad of several types of cucumber and melon with a pineapple-jalapeño sauce and Persian mint. The six-course menu costs $110, or $195 with wine pairings.

A dessert case, Tustin's Main Street and a peaceful patio are all part of Freesoulcaffé's urban charm.

As the afternoon cools, umbrellas are collapsed and candles are lit at Freesoulcaffé in Tustin.

Freesoulcaffé is on a mission to make plant-based diets exciting to the palate, according to its website. The interior is urban while the courtyard patio is serene.

Bo De Tinh Tam Chay is a vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Westminster.

Vegetarian noodles are served with fake meat at Bo De Tinh Tam Chay in Westminster.

Nan Duc Hanh, a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in Westminster, opened late last year.

Lunchers look over the vegan menu at Tustin's Freesoulcaffé. This dining room overlooks Main Street, an impressive dessert display and a patio area with aquiet fountain.

Freesoulini with vegan sausage bits, roasted broccolini, grape tomatoes, roasted garlic, extra virgin olive oil is served at Freesoulcaffé. The Tustin eatery's website supports compassionate cuisine. It was established in 2010 to provide "wholesome, sustainable foods for an alternative, compassionate way of life," according to its website.

Banh hoi, or rice noodles with roasted bean curd, is featured at Bo De Tinh Tam Chay.

Try the mushroom pasta or veggie burger at Freesoulcaffé, but steer clear of the desserts.

Artisan pizza is made in-house daily at Freesoulcaffé in Tustin, where even the vegan graham crackers are made from scratch.

Seabirds Kitchen in Costa Mesa recently added several new catch-all bowls to the menu.

Sauteed gnocchi are paired with basil, caramelized tomato and a parmesan crisp on the chef's vegetarian tasting menu at Studio in Laguna Beach. The six-course menu costs $110, or $195 with wine pairings.

Squash blossom pizza is all vegan at Tustin's Freesoulcaffé. Pizza dough, dressings, spreads, and sauces are all made in-house daily. Everything is made from scratch, according to its website.

This trio shares a berry cheesecake and coconut pecan pie at Freesoulcaffé, located at 191 East Main Street Suite 1B in Tustin

Ravioli are stuffed with edamame and served in a light soy nage at True Food Kitchen in Newport Beach.

Diners lingered for hours in the tranquil patio setting at Freesoulcaffé, where they can help themselves to water. It overlooks the city's Main Street between El Camino Real and Prospect Avnue in Tustin.

I would hate to be a vegetarian in Orange County. The bar for vegetarian restaurants has been set astonishingly low. I’ve spent the last couple of months traversing the county in search of a great vegetarian restaurant. The pickings are slim.

It’s especially rough out there for vegans, but I suppose that’s a choice based on factors far greater than how food interacts with taste buds.

Regardless, it shouldn’t have to be that way. Restaurants like Plant Food and Wine in Venice, and Crossroads in Los Angeles, prove just how great vegetarian dining can be, not merely from a culinary perspective but in an overall context of fine dining. Sadly, we don’t have anything like that here.

After dining at 20 vegetarian specialists in Orange County (my apologies to the friends I dragged with me), here is what I’ve discovered.

1. Most shockingly, the majority of vegetarian restaurants show a complete disdain for vegetables. It’s insane. We grow the world’s finest tomatoes in Southern California, and they are currently at their peak. But you would not know it by looking at the menu of any vegetarian restaurant in Orange County.

And have you tasted this year’s corn? It is incredible. It’s also missing from every vegetarian restaurant I visited.

I saw beautiful fava beans at the farmers markets in June and July, but the vegetarian restaurants showed absolutely no interest in those. The same goes for fresh green beans and okra.

I’ve eaten lots of Brussels sprouts lately, which are at their worst in July and August. Mostly, though, I’ve seen season-ambivalent carrots, sprouts and cauliflower. I’ve also seen way too many canned garbanzo beans and frozen sweet potato fries.

Most vegetarian restaurants ignore the season’s best fruits and vegetables. It’s as if the owners and chefs of these places have never been to a farmers market, much less the corner grocery store.

3. Bowl food is popular, no matter what’s in the bowl. Throw everything but the kitchen sink into a bowl – sprouts, carrots, grains, guacamole, salsa, hummus, fake mayo, barbecue sauce, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, tofu, almond cheese – whether it belongs together or not. No matter how cute the name of the dish, the result is almost never delicious.

4. Vegetarian restaurants almost always achieve stellar ratings on Yelp. “Just got the fish tacos; they are SOOOOO good. They are actually better than real fish tacos!!” exclaimed one Yelper in her five-star review of Vegan Nirvana in Huntington Beach. She has clearly lost her mind. Sadly, for vegetarian restaurants, reviews like this are the rule, not the exception. Don’t believe the hype.

5. Desserts never taste as good as they look. Cakes and cookies made without butter are never better than those made with butter. I almost broke a tooth trying to bite into the crust on one of the strikingly beautiful chocolate pies at Freesoulcaffé in Tustin. I had no luck using a stainless steel knife, either. What do vegan pastry chefs use in place of butter? Cement?

6. The best thing on the menu is usually the smoothie. The coffee date smoothie at Mead’s Green Door is great.

Fortunately, vegetarians have plenty of places to eat other than strictly vegetarian restaurants. Most Mexican cafes offer some form of enchiladas or tacos without meat. Most Italian restaurants serve meatless pasta or salads. Most steakhouses make good vegetables if you don’t mind cobbling together a meal of side dishes while inhaling the wonderfully intoxicating aroma of charred meat. Nearly every Vietnamese or Thai restaurant offers a few vegetarian options.

It’s time for vegetarian restaurants to step it up. We deserve better.

James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic (and three-time nominee) Brad A. Johnson has been writing about food for more than 20 years. A prolific traveler who has dined extensively around the world, he joined the Orange County Register in 2013 to help readers find Southern California’s finest steak, the strongest margarita, the freshest sushi, the hottest Thai curries and more. Brad dines strictly incognito and pulls no punches. Although he has yet to find a local restaurant to merit a perfect four-star rating, he remains ever hopeful as the quest continues.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.